Multicentre study to develop a medication safety package for decreasing inpatient harm from omission of time-critical medications

Abstract

Quality issue: Omitting time-critical medications leads to delays in treatment and may result in patient harm.

Initial assessment: Published studies show that omission of prescribed medication doses is common. Although most are inconsequential, up to 86% of omitted medications place patients at some risk of harm.

Solution: Funding was obtained to develop a medication safety package to facilitate decreasing omitted dose incidents by audit, education and feedback.

Implementation: A panel of nursing and pharmacy hospital staff in Victoria, Australia, reviewed existing audit tools and published studies to develop a critical medication list and audit tool. The tool, definitions and instructions were tested in 11 rural, urban and teaching hospitals. Qualitative feedback was sought to refine the tool using a Plan-Do-Study-Act model. An educational presentation was developed using reported incidents.

Evaluation: Staff in 11 hospitals tested the audit tool in 321 patients receiving 17 361 doses of medication. Feedback indicated audit data were useful for informing improvements in practice and for accreditation. The educational material consists of the User Guide, plus a presentation for nursing staff illustrated by six cases with questions, with instructions on how to decrease harm from omitted doses by ensuring correct documentation and prioritising time-critical medications.

Lessons learned: A medication safety package using standard definitions and a critical medication list was successfully tested. It is now used by nursing and pharmacy staff across the state. Several interstate hospitals are using the tools as part of their hospital medication safety programmes.

Keywords: adverse events; complications, hospital care; nursing; quality improvement; quality management, patient safety, drug errors; setting of care, pharmacy.